


Black and Blue

by toesohnoes



Category: X-Men (Movies), X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-03
Updated: 2011-11-03
Packaged: 2017-10-25 15:50:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/272047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toesohnoes/pseuds/toesohnoes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s been almost a year, but when Erik turns up on his doorstep, bruised and beaten, Charles doesn’t hesitate before he lets him in.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Black and Blue

**Author's Note:**

> Written at my [Tumblr](http://toestastegood-fic.tumblr.com/post/12124617133/its-been-almost-a-year-but-when-erik-turns-up-on).

It’s been almost a year, but when Erik turns up on his doorstep, bruised and beaten, Charles doesn’t hesitate before he lets him in.

“I didn’t know where else to go,” Erik says, his voice like gravel. “I’m sorry. I’ll be out of your hair in the morning.”

Charles shakes his head and stares up at him from his chair, taking in the swollen eye and dried blood from his scratches. Superficial wounds, all of them, but that’s hardly the point. Erik looks as if he’s had the hell beaten out of him. “What happened?” Charles asks.

He feels absurdly privileged once more, in the hallway of his large home. A lot has changed since they last met. Surely the chair alone is proof of that.

Erik, for his part, doesn’t say a word. He doesn’t even attempt to answer the question.

Shaw’s helmet is nowhere to be seen, so Charles could push inside and take a look for himself; he doesn’t. Something tells him that he wouldn’t like what he would find. Vague news reports of the Brotherhood’s actions are enough to let him know that he can’t approve of their methods or even their aims. Whatever happened to Erik, perhaps there is a chance he deserved it.

Even that isn’t enough to make him send him away.

He clears his throat awkwardly. “Your room is as you left it,” he assures Erik. “It’s yours for as long as you need a place to stay.”

Something in Erik’s closed-mouth expression makes his throat ache; mistrust mixed with surprise, perhaps a lingering genuine relief that the Manor’s doors have not been closed in his face.

“There are pain-killers in the kitchen,” Charles continues. “I daresay you look like you could use them. I’ve been fortunate enough never to have a black eye, but that looks painful.”

He has been abandoned by his friends to bleed and lose the use of his legs; a bruise or two is nothing in comparison, but he can’t think about that, he won’t. His eyes close for a moment as he pushes the rising bile away, as he tries to bite back all the accusations he’s never been able to voice.

His eyes are still closed when Erik leans down to kiss his lips, just as he had once done in a year ago. Charles can taste the blood on his mouth and he can feel the restrained tension in Erik’s body. So much has changed now; he sighs in relief and parts his lips, letting Erik inside as they kiss slowly in the entrance hall of the manor, Charles’s fingertips coming to rest carefully on Erik’s jaw – not sure any more if he is scared of hurting him or scared of chasing him away.


End file.
